Great rivals in our youngest daughter's love, Which of you, fhall we fay, doth love us most? Gon. Sir, I Do love you more than words can wield the matter, 5 ΙΟ 15 [Afide. Lear. Of all these bounds, even from this line 20 to this, With fhadowy forests and with champains rich'd, Reg. I am made of that self metal as my fister, Which the most precious fquare 3 of fenfe poffeffes; In your dear highness' love. Cor. Then poor Cordelia ! And yet not fo; fince I am fure, my love's 30 Lear. Let it be fc-Thy truth then be thy For, by the facred radiance of the fun, And as a stranger to my heart and me Or he that makes his generation meffes Come not between the dragon and his wrath: So be my grave my peace, as here I give Call Burgundy.Cornwall, and Albany, Lear. To thee, and thine, hereditary ever, That is, beyond all affignable quantity. [tain I do invest you jointly with my power, Whom I have ever honour'd as my king, the shaft. Kent. Let it fall rather, though the fork invade The region of my heart: be Kent unmannerly, 55 When Lear is mad. What would'st thou do, old man? Think'ft thou that duty shall have dread to speak, When power to flattery bows? To plainness honour's bound, 160l When majesty stoops to folly. Reverse thy doom; 2 That seems to stand without relation, but is referred to find, the first conjunction being inaccurately fuppreffed. I find that the names my deed, I find that I profefs, &c. from this time. 3 Square here means compajs, comprehenfion. 4 Validity, for worth, value. i. e. the execution of all the other business. 5 i. c. And, To come betwixt our fentence and our power 4, Kent. Why, fare thee well, king: fince thus That fhe, who even but now was your best object, That monsters it, or your fore vouch'd affection 40 Freedom lives hence, and banishment is here.-- Re-enter Glofter, with France, Burgundy, and at tendants. Glo. Here's France and Burgundy, my noble lord. Lear. My lord of Burgundy, We first address towards you, who with this king Bur. Moft royal majesty, I Means the fame as reverberates. bounds. 50 2 The blank is the white or exact mark at which the arrow is fhot. See better, fays Kent, and keep me always in your view. 3 i. e. pride exorbitant; pride passing due 4 i. e. our power to execute that fentence. 5 Queft of love is amorous expedition. The terma originated from romance. A queft was the expedition in which a knight was engaged. Seeming is fpecious. 7 i. e. is poffeffed of. 8 i. c. makes not advances. 9 Taint is here used for corruption and for difgrace. 10 Entire for fingle. 302 6 And And here I take Cordelia by the hand, Lear. Nothing; I have fworn: I am firm. Cor. Peace be with Burgundy! Since that respects of fortune are his love, France. Faircft Cordelia, thou art moft rich, Moft choice, forfaken; and most lov'd, despis'd! neglect My love fhould kindle to inflam'd respect.—— Is queen of us, of ours, and our fair France: Lear. Thou haft her, France: let her be thine; Have no fuch daughter, nor shall ever fee Come, noble Burgundy. Gon. You fee how full of changes his age is! the obfervation we have made of it hath not been little! he always lov'd our fifter moft; and with what poor judgment he hath now caft her off, 5 appears too grossly. Reg. 'Tis the infirmity of his age: yet he hath ever but flenderly known himself. Gon. The best and foundest of his time hath been but rafh; then must we look to receive 10 from his age, not alone the imperfections of longengrafted condition, but therewithal the unruly waywardness that infirm and cholerick years bring with them. Reg. Such unconftant starts are we like to 15 have from him, as this of Kent's banishment. Gon. There is further compliment of leavetaking between France and him. Pray you, let us hit together: If our father carry authority with fuch difpofitions as he bears, this laft fur20 render of his will but offend us. 25 A Cafe belonging to the Earl of Glofter. Enter Edmund, with a Letter. Edm. Thou, nature, art my goddess; to thy law My fervices are bound: Wherefore should I [Flourish. Exeunt Lear, Burgundy, &c. 30 Stand in the plague of custom; and permit France. Bid farewel to your fifters. Cor. The jewels of our father, with wash'd eyes Your faults, as they are nam'd. Use well our father: I would prefer him to a better place. Reg. Prefcribe not us our duties. Be, to content your lord; who hath receiv'd you wanted 2. Cor. Time fhall unfold what plaited 3 cunning Who cover faults, at laft fhame them derides. France. Come, my fair Cordelia. [Exeunt France and Cordelia. Gon, Sifter, it is not a little I have to fay, of what moft nearly appertains to us both. I think, our father will hence to-night. The curiofity of nations to deprive me, For that I am fome twelve or fourteen moon- Lag of a brother? Why baftard? wherefore Than doth, within a dull, stale, tired bed, As to the legitimate: Fine word,-legitimate! Reg. That's most certain, and with you; next 55 month with us. Enter Glofter. Glo. Kent banish'd thus! And France in choler parted! And the king gone to-night! fubfcrib'd his power! Confin'd to exhibition 10! All this done Here and where have the power of nouns. Thou lofeft this refidence to find a better refidence in another place. 2 The meaning is, "You well deferve to meet with that want of love from your husband, which you have profeffed to want for our father." 3 i. e. complicated, involved, cunning. 4i. e. agree. 3 i.e. We must firike while the iron's bot. 6 That is, Wherefore fhould I acquiefce, fubmit tamely to the plagues and injuftice of custom? 7 Curiofity, in the time of Shakspeare, was a word that fignified an over-nice fcrupulousness in manners, drefs, &c. The curiofity of nations means, the idle, nice diftinctions of the world. 8 To deprive was, in our author's time, fynonymous to difinberit. 10 Exhibition is allowance. Subfcrib'd for transferred, alienated. Upon C the letter!Abhorred villain! Unnatural, de tefted, brutish villain! worfe than brutish!-Go, firrah, feek him; I'll apprehend him :-Abomin able villain!-Where is he? Edm. I do not well know, my lord. If it fhall please you to fufpend your indignation against my brother, 'till you can derive from him better teftimony of his intent, you should run a certain courfe; where, if you violently proceed against him, mistaking his purpose, it would make a great gap in your own honour, and shake in pieces the heart of his obedience. I dare pawn down my life for him, that he hath writ this to feel my affection to your honour, and to no other pretence 3 of dan Glo. Think you fo? ter from my brother, that I have not all o'er-read; 15 ger. Glo. Give me the letter, fir. Edm. I fhall offend, either to detain or give it. Edm. If your honour judge it meet, I will place you where you shall hear us confer of this, and by an auricular affurance have your fatisfaction; and The contents, as in part I understand them, are to 20 that without any further delaythan this very evening. blame. Gla. Let's fee, let's fee. Glo. He cannot be such a monster. Edm. Nor is not, fure. Glo. To his father, that fo tenderly and entirely loves him.-Heaven and earth!-Edmund, seek him out; wind me into him, I pray you : frame the bufinefs after your own wifdom: I would unftate myself, to be in a due refolution 4. Edm. I will feek him, fir, presently; convey the bufinefs as I fhall find means, and acquaint you Edm. I hope, for my brother's juftification, he wrote this but as an affay or taste of my virtue. Glo. reads.]" This policy, and reverence of 25 แ age, makes the world bitter to the beft of our "times; keeps our fortunes from us, 'till our old"nefs cannot relish them. I begin to find an idle " and fond 2 bondage in the oppreffion of aged ty66 ranny; who fways, not as it hath power, but 30 withal. "as it is fuffered. Come to me, that of this I may| "speak more. If our father would fleep 'till I "wak'd him, you should enjoy half his revenue "for ever, and live the beloved of your brother, "Edgar"-Hum--Conspiracy!--“Sleep, 'till I wak'd 35 "him!---you fhall enjoy half his revenue !"My fon Edgar! Had he a hand to write this? a heart and brain to breed it in ?---When came this to you? Who brought it? Edm. It was not brought me, my lord, there's the cunning of it; I found it thrown in at the cafement of my closet. Glo. You know the character to be your brothers? Glo. These late eclipfes in the fun and moon portend no good to us: Though the wisdom of nature can reafon it thus and thus, yet nature finds itfelf fcourg'd by the fequent effects; love cools, friendship falls off, brothers divide: in cities, mutinies; in countries, difcord; in palaces, treasɔn; and the bond crack'd 'twixt fon and father. This villain of mine comes under the prediction; there's fon against father: the king falls from bias of na40ture; there's father against child. We have feen the beft of our time: Machinations, hollowness, treachery, and all ruinous disorders, follow us difquietly to our graves!Find out this villain, Edmund: it fhal! lofe thee nothing; do it carefully: Edm. If the matter were good, my lord, I durft|45| fwear it were his; but, in refpect of that, I would fain think it were not. Glo. It is his. -And the noble and true-hearted Kent banish'd! his offence, honesty!Strange! strange! [Exit. Edm. This is the excellent foppery of the world! that, when we are fick in fortune, (often the furfeit of our own behaviour) we make guilty of our difafters, the fun, the moon, and the stars: as if we were villains, by neceffity; fools, by heavenly compulfion; knaves, thieves, and treachers, by fpherical predominance; drunkards, lyars, and adulterers, by an enforc'd obedience of planetary 55 influence; and all that we are evil in, by a divine thrusting on: An admirable evasion of whore Edm. It is his hand, my lord; but I hope, his heart is not in the contents. [this bufinefs? 50 Gio. Hath he never heretofore founded you in Edm. Never, my lord: But I have often heard him maintain it to be fit, that, fons at perfect age, and father's declining, the father should be as ward to the fon, and the fon manage his revenue. Glo. O villain, villain !--- His very opinion in 1 4 The 1 To do upon the gad, is, to act by the sudden stimulation of caprice, as cattle run madding when they are stung by the gad-fly. 2 i. e. weak and foolish. 3 Pretence is defign, purpose. meaning is, according to Dr. Johnson, Do you frame the business, who can act with lefs emotion; I would unftate myself; it would in me be a departure from the paternal character, to be in a due refolution, to be fettled and composed on such an occafion. Mr. Steevens comments on this paffage thus: "Edgar has been reprefented as wishing to poffefs his father's fortune, i. e. to unftate him; and therefore his father fays, he would unstate himself to be fufficiently refolved to punish him. To enftate is to confer a fortune. 5 To convey here means to manage artfully. That is, though natural philosophy can give account of eclipfes, yet we feel their confequences. master man, to lay his goatish difpofition to the That he suspects none; on whofe foolish honefty The Duke of Albany's Palace. Enter Goneril, and Steward. Gon. Did my father ftrike my gentleman for and pat he comes, like the catastrophe of the old Edg. How now, brother Edmund? What ferious contemplation are you in? Edm. I am thinking, brother, of a prediction 115 read this other day, what should follow thefe eclipfes. Edg. Do you bufy yourself with that? Edm. I promife you, the effects he writes of, fucceed unhappily; as of unnaturalness between 20 the child and the parent; death, dearth, diffolutions of ancient amities, divifions in ftate, menaces and maledictions against king and nobles; needlefs diffidences, banishment of friends, diffipation of cohorts, nuptial breaches, and I know not what. 25 Edg. How long have you been a sectary aftronomical? Edm. Come, come; when faw you my father laft? Edg. Why, the night gone by. Edm. Parted you in good terms? Found you no displeasure in him, by word or countenance ? Edg. None at all. Stew. Ay, madam. [hour Gon. By day and night! he wrongs me; every [Horas within. 30 With checks as flatteries when they are seen abus'd'. Stew. Very well, madam. Gon. And let his knights have colder looks 35 What grows of it, no matter; advife your fellows Edm. Bethink yourself, wherein you may have offended him: and at my entreaty, forbear his prefence, until fome little time hath qualified the heat of his difpleasure; which at this instant so rageth in him, that with the mifchief of your perfon it 40 would fcarcely allay. Edg. Some villain hath done me wrong. Edm. That's my fear. I pray you, have a continent forbearance, 'till the speed of his rage goes flower; and, as I fay, retire with me to my lodg-45 ing, from whence I will fitly bring you to hear my lord fpeak: Pray you, go; there's my key:-It| you do ftir abroad, go arm'd. Edg. Arm'd, brother! The fenfe, according to Dr. Johnson, is this: “ Old men must be treated with checks, when as they are feen to be deceived with flatteries : or, when they are weak enough to be seen abused by flatteries, they are then weak enough to be used with checks. There is a play of the words used and abused. To abuse is, in our author, very frequently the fame as to deceive." 2 That is, If i can change my fpeech as well as I have changed my drefs. To diffuje speech fignifies to disorder it, and fo to disguise it, Lear. |